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Top 10
In Theaters
1. Madia's Family Re
union (PG-13) Tyler Perry
2. Eight Below (PG) Paul
Walker, Jason Biggs
3. The Pink Panther (PG)
Steve Martin, Beyonce
Knowles
4. Date Movie (PG-13)
Alyson Hannigan, Eddie
Griffin
5. Curious George (G)
Will Ferrell
6. Firewall (PG-13)
Harrison Ford
7. Final Destination 3 (R)
Ryan Merriman
8. Doogal (G) Jimmy
Fallon, Jon Stewart
9. Running Scared (R)
Paul Walker
10. Freedomland (R)
Samuel L. Jackson
Top 10 Songs
in America
1 Check On It -
Beyonce feat. Slim Thug
2. You’re Beautiful-
James Blunt
3. Grillz - Nelly feat. Paul
Wall, Ali and Gipp
4. Temperature -
Sean Paul
5. Be Without You - Mary
J. Blige
6. I’m N Luv (Wit a
Stripper) - T-Pain feat.
Mike Jones
7. Yo (Excuse Me Miss)
- Chris Brown
8. So Sick - Ne Yo
9. Unwritten- Natasha
Bedingfield
10. Shake That - Eminem
feat. Nate Dogg
Top 10
Album Sales
1. Ghetto Classics -
Jaheim
2. Curious George - Jack
Johnson
3. The Greatest Songs of
the Fifties - Barry
Manilow
4. The Breakthrough
- Mary J. Blige
5. Amort Andrea Bocelli
6. High School Musical
(Soundtrack)
7. Some Hearts - Carrie
Underwood
8. Back to Bedlam -
James Blunt
9. Unpredictable - Jamie
Foxx
10. Curtain Call: The
Hits- Eminem
Top JO movie information is
according to Yahoo.com. Top
JO music information is ac
cording to Billboard.com.
The Reel Deal:
“ Freedomland ”
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 113 minutes
Starring: Samuel L.
Jackson, Julianne Moore,
Edith Falco,
Ron Eldard and William
Forsythe
“Freedomland.” based
on a substantial 1998 novel
by Richard Price, feels
more like an extended
episode of "Law & Order”
than the psychological
crime drama it could be.
At the beginning
of the movie we find
Brenda (Julianne Moore),
disoriented and wandering
through what is obviously
not that great an area of
town. As her trench coat
enveloped figure wanders
to a hospital, detective
Lorenzo Council (Samuel L.
Jackson) is in the Armstrong
housing projects.
Detective Council is
apparently highly respected
in the poor community
and is there goodheartedly
try ing to convince a young
man to turn himself in on a
minor charge.
Suddenly, his radio
blares with the report of a
carjacking victim (Brenda)
'"^UPSTEMM
By Will Winchester
KilgoreTrout2o(a)aol.com
On February
11, celebrated retro
popsters (and Athens
natives) Of Montreal
played the Variety
Playhouse to a sold
out crowd. If you
missed it, you missed
an exceptional
performance from one
of the most energetic
and engaging rock
spectacles on the road
today, and you should
lash yourself promptly
for your inexcusable
indolence.
Fortunately, I
had an opportunity to
speak over the phone
with Jamey Huggins,
the band’s multi
instrumentalist, about
the band, the tour, and the
latest album. Here’s what
he had to say.
WW: So, I caught the
show Saturday night in
Atlanta. Really great
show, excellent set. Great
crowd, too -a hometown
crowd, I understand.
JH: Yeah, that’s what
made that one really
special. Atlanta’s my
hometown; 1 was born and
raised there. And Matt
Dawson, our bass player,
he was bom and raised
there. Dottie, the keyboard
player, her mother lives
receiving treatment at the
local hospital.
When Council arrives
at the hospital and meets
Brenda, he is immediately
taken in by her.
She tells
an intricate
tale of driving
back from the
community
center in
Armstrong,
where she has
volunteered for
quite a while,
and taking
a side street
which was
supposed to be
a shortcut.
As she
drove slowly
down the road, a
man leaped out
of the bushes,
pulled her from
the car, threw
her into some
glass on the
ground (ripping
her palms to
shreds) and
took off in her
car.
Oh yeah,
she forgets to
mention until
sometime later
A- 7 f SH
l. 'JvtSs* WHf
''-Pb Me:.-,*
: 4pv#3l
photo courtesy ofmonlreal.net
Athens natives Of Montreal now on tour promoting their new album “The Sunlandic Twins”.
there. The rest of us have
lived in Athens for almost
ten years...so Atlanta is
very much like our home
town, and for us to get to
play to that huge, sold
out crowd was just a big,
special night.
In the past, we’ve
played Atlanta and we
didn’t feel like we got any
sort of respect from the
audiences. To go back
to Atlanta and have over
a thousand people was
really kind of a landmark
evening in the history of
the band.
that her ill son is asleep in
the backseat of the car.
This last detail,
plus the fact that her
brother (Ron Fldard)
is a detective in a
neighboring middle-class
community, prompts an
immediate lockdown of
the Armstrong projects.
Over the time span
I . .jflßfis ; Wm
| At * W' flu
-Imhu m i
photo courtesy of yahoo cum
Julianne Moore attempting craziness and coming up short.
WW: You guys got your
start in Athens, in the mid
nineties, at the height of
the Elephant 6 explosion.
How did this influence
your earlier work?
JH: The way I always
liketothinkofthe Elephant
6 days, around ’96 and
'97, was this feeling that
we were all, like, in some
sort of college together.
We were all into the same
sort of idea of recording
and making music, and
we were very much open
to sort of researching
and learning about all
different styles, and it was
kind of like a swap meet,
where we would literally
have meetings once a
week - we called them
potlucks -and we would
get together at a different
band or different band
of just a few days, racial
tensions ignite as the low
income neighborhood is
transformed into a prison
guarded by hordes of
policemen.
While the media hypes
the kidnapping as well
as the unconstitutional
lockdown, detective
Council tries to get the
member’s house every
week and bring food and
all try to encourage people
to check out bands they’d
never heard of. And
1 can remember being
introduced to all this new
music in this huge family
that was like, for a very
short time, actually like
functioning, to the point of
where there were like five
different bands making
five different albums at
one time, and all of those
members of those bands
were like constantly going
to each others’ houses
to lay down tracks and
bring over microphones
and borrow instruments.
And it really was like this
mythological and beautiful
time where there was all
this collaboration. So was
there anything specific
that influenced us? And I
truth about that night
out of Brenda. She is
reluctant to cooperate,
however, as her past as a
drug addict is resurrected
and, as days pass with
no developments, many
begin to believe that she
had something to do with
her son’s disappearance.
Enter the Friends of
Kent, a group of parents
founded by a mother
whose son was abducted.
They offer their assistance
to Council and at first he
refuses...until he realizes
that he is in over his head.
With the organizations’
help, Council concocts a
plan to determine for sure
w hether or not Brenda was
involved in the crime.
The Friends of Kent,
police officers, volunteers
from the community
and Brenda all descend
on Freedomland, a
long closed orphanage
determined by the group
to be the only place left
in the city where a young
boy could hide for so long
undetected. It is there, in
the shadow of all of the
tortured souls of orphans,
that Brenda tells the
truth.
"Freedomland”
started with some great
potential. This could have
been a wonderful film
See Reel page 6
guess it’s like, everything
influenced us...but mostly
just each other.
WW: Sounds a lot like
the spirit of the ’6os.
JH: Well that’s why we
got constant comparisons
to that. People always
thought we were like
hippies or something.
But we weren’t, we were
like indie rock kids, you
know?
WW: The actual
music, though, does
suggest a heavy
influence of the music
of the late ’6os. What
is it that is so attractive
about this period for
you and Of Montreal
in particular?
JH: The first thing that
comes to mind is just,
like, the magical sort
of newness of it all. 1
mean if you’re talking
about the best rock
music that came from
the mid-sixties - I guess
our favorite period was
the late sixties, like ’66-
’69, particularly 1968,
which is probably the
best year in music, in
my opinion - first of all
it’s the innovation. It’s
like, at that point (we’re
talking thirty-five, almost
forty years ago), all those
things were not only
creative and interesting
and beautiful, but on top
of all of that they were
new. When people were
ripping that guitar solo,
they were ripping it for
See SUP, page 6